The CBDT, on November 11, 2019, said that Raids by the Income Tax Department have unearthed large tax evasion, involving ‘leading corporate houses’ in the Infrastructure sector. The raids were conducted in the first week of November 2019, on 42 premises in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Erode, Pune, Agra and Goa, on a group of people indulging in issuing bogus bills and carrying on hawala transactions.

“The search action was successful in unearthing incriminating evidences and establishing the nexus between big corporates, hawala operators and identification of entire chain of delivery, as well as siphoning of funds by way of bogus contracts to the tune of Rs 3,300 crores,” the CBDT said in a statement. The Board, the policy-making body for the I-T Department, however, did not identify the entities raided.

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The raids resulted in busting of a ‘major racket of cash generation’, by leading corporate houses in the infrastructure sector through bogus contracts and bills, it said. “The projects involved in bogus billing are major infrastructure and EWS (economically weaker section) projects located in south India,” it said “Funds meant for public infrastructure projects were siphoned off through entry operators, lobbyists and hawala dealers,” the CBDT said, adding that the companies involved in the siphoning of funds were mostly located in the NCR and Mumbai.